We ended up dropping it before we even got started because dd declared it to be too much like science, and she already had that in spades.

Perhaps in addition to the ACTA list, you take a look at a list that might be meaningful to you, as long as you take them with a grain of salt. Many of them are written up to be little more than click bait, but they are still interesting to read. For example: Want to work in Silicon Valley when you graduate? Here's is a list of top schools whose students get hired there. Want to work on Wall Street? Is your student an aspiring novelist? Okay, it's mostly click bait.

Some of your student's best advisors will be other students, in his class or older students who have already gone down his path. I wish I had learned this sooner. In particular, some rules are not really rules, and other students can tell you which is a hard rule and which is soft. For example, as freshman we were assigned to different sorts of Western Culture courses. I was very disappointed in the class I was assigned to, and for completely different reasons, it wasn't a good fit at all and I did poorly in the class. Had I spoken to more informed students, I might have learned that I could have petitioned out of the class (by simply drawing a line through my preprinted list of courses and writing in the class I really wanted). Ask lots of questions of the students and RAs around you. They can be your best resource.

Will she get to meet other freshman? It's always nice to have at least one friend before you arrive on campus. When my dd had a tough time away from home last summer, I encouraged her binge watch her favorite TV shows in the evening.

What pill do you take?

Yeah, I pretty much think everyone else's homeschooling philosophy is crazy...unless they are doing exactly what I'm doing. :lol: I'm sure we're all rolling our eyes and shaking our heads at each other respectively, but I have no problem setting that aside and discuss something less controversial than homeschooling philosophies...like religion and politics, lol.

Well, this is all speculative and not really grounded in reality, but I think receiving UBI does not preclude you from also earning additional money in some entrepreneurial way, like being an artist or creating new products to sell. But because not all of us are wired to be artists or entrepreneurs, a UBI without a means test (so slightly different from welfare...everyone gets a UBI no matter how much money you make) gives everyone the freedom from living in abject poverty. Frankly, it's much like my life now. I'm a SAHM, who makes a little extra money tutoring. Courtesy of my husband, I have a type of UBI which enables me to pursue hobbies, does not preclude me from earning more money (because my husband does not give me a means test to disqualify me), and allows me to homeschool my kids, and I'm free to read and learn more. I don't feel any lack of hope, and I'm generally pretty happy that I get all this money for free basically.

I frequented the Secular Homeschoolers yahoogroup years ago when I was just getting started (and I hadn't heard of WTM). They were a lovely mature helpful friendly group. For whatever reason (maybe the WTM format is much easier to read than the yahoogroup), after finding WTM I haven't needed to go there for years, so I hope they are still as I remember. ETA: I just checked my most recent digests from Secular Homeschoolers, and it looks like message volume is way down. Maybe they all moved here or to SEA?

Agree with PPs that we keep social separate from academics. We happen to have a lot of Waldorf and Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers in our area. I like their low-media approach and preserving childhood (not growing up too soon, not sexualized), but that's where our similarities end. We didn't participate in their group academic activities (we just aren't that into fairies), but we have had plenty of social time with them.

Hugs to you and your special needs baby. Your son's math record looks great.

I just glanced at Wikipedia: Pilot programs As of 2017, the only well established and ongoing cash transfer programs akin to a basic income are the Permanent Fund of Alaska in the United States and Bolsa Família in Brazil. Additionally, several other countries have tested, implemented, or begun planning the following basic income experiments: Experiments with negative income tax in United States and Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. A town in Manitoba, Canada experimented with a basic guaranteed income in the 1970s[31] The Basic Income Grant (BIG) in Namibia, launched in 2008[32] An independent pilot implemented in Sao Paulo, Brazil[33] Several villages in India participated in basic income trial,[34] while the government has proposed a guaranteed basic income for all citizens.[35] The GiveDirectly experiment in Nairobi, Kenya, which is the biggest and longest basic income pilot as of 2017.[36] A study undertaken in rural North Carolina in the U.S.[37] The city of Utrecht in the Netherlands launched an experiment in early 2017 that is testing different rates of aid.[38] Ontario, Canada will implement a basic income trial in summer 2017.[39] The Finnish government implemented a two-year pilot in January 2017 involving 2,000 subjects.[40] Eight, a nonprofit organisation, launched a project in a village in Fort Portal, Uganda in January 2017, providing income for 56 adults and 88 children through mobile money.[41]

Did he happen to read the recent NY Times article about the loss of retail jobs? Or maybe an article a couple of years ago in the Atlantic about a world without work? It's really interesting to speculate on. Our economy is based on the premise that human labor has value. That value can be exchanged for goods and services. What happens when human labor has no value? Robots can produce everything but humans have nothing to provide in exchange. People still need food and shelter, so how do we distribute those things now? Some have suggested we may be in need of a Universal Basic Income which we collect while filling those few remaining jobs that robots can't do or pursuing hobbies. Canada and Finland among others are trying this. Maybe there are other solutions? (Sorry to get on the crazy train for a while there.)

Holt biology is pretty solid.

I couldn't find It's okay to be smart. Is it on itunes?

:hurray: I am so impressed. No way could my kids have studied that text independently of me. Learning to study independently from a dense textbook is an important academic life skill that will serve him well in the years to come.

The best way to see if the AoPS class is right for you is to look at the textbook. My dd is taking the PAH course this fall, but she finished precalc last spring so we were able to get a head start on calculus using the AoPS textbook at home. The AoPS material is heavy on the proofs which my dd loved, but isn't so useful for the exam. There weren't enough practice problems for her to feel comfortable doing well on the exam. I'm hoping she'll get a lot of practice problems at PAH so she can be automatic with her exam solutions. If anyone's dc is taking PAH ap calc or physics C this fall, PM me and maybe our kids can meet up on the discussion forums.

Most of my middle school students (especially the girls) could sit through an hour of MathCounts review. Some of my younger boys were pretty squirmy. I had homework for half the meetings (an old sprint or target round that takes about 30-45 minutes). Half the time they just show up with no homework assigned (for the team and countdown rounds). I don't know what their bandwidth was outside of my team, but I'm pretty sure they completed their assignments and showed up prepared. I figure if they are too busy to participate, they don't sign up. I had two one-hour meetings back to back, first group for newbies and the second group for experienced problem solvers. I let them decide which they wanted to attend, and I had several who attended both for 2 hours total. I don't like gratuitous junk food, so I didn't provide any food. I did have one party near the end of the season where we had fun food. I accommodated a wide skill range by having the 2 classes as I described above. Fortunately, my high school daughter took on teaching the newbie kids, so it was less exhausting for me. I'm surprised you don't like the MathCounts problems, but it sounds like you are more research-oriented and less competition-minded, which also sounds like fun. Good luck!

You're outside the US right? I'm not sure, but I think it's pretty expensive to mail things overseas. And I think there is a special low mailing rate for junk mail, that may only apply to US mail. Don't think you're missing anything, now that we have the internet. Just imagine their websites full of happy multi-ethnic good-looking students studying under shade trees ... in paper form.

Wow, what a nightmare. I wonder if you could plug in some earphones, listen to an audiobook or podcast and take a long walk. But wait. Then they might send your kids off with some strangers! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Right?

I found the booklist in BFSU to be integral to the whole process. While my first search would be for those named books, I would also do a general search on the same topic and get those books as well. These were short picture books that we read once and returned the next day. If I had to pay for them, it would have been brutal. I agree on getting some sort of science encyclopedia for children. You can probably get by showing your students websites on the relevant topics.

On the bright side, there's always at least one tough polynomial problem on the AMC 10/12, so you'll be super prepared.

Int. Algebra is long. You finish one chapter on polynomials, and what do you know? Another chapter on polynomials. And another. And another.

PAH's AP chemistry finishes a full month before the AP exam, and that entire month is devoted to test prep. But chem covers a lot of disparate material.

I don't plan to read the book as my kids are getting older, but I'm following. Is there anything in particular about his approach that you'd like to discuss?

We got a head start on calculus this spring, so we used AoPS. Dd appreciated having all the proofs for everything. But it didn't really have enough practice, so she's also going to do the PAH class in the fall.